• How to make a smooth fade in sony vegas. How to make a fade in and fade out in Sony Vegas? Encoding using frameserver

    When you watch, as a viewer, any video clip or movie, you may have encountered the fact that the video suddenly appeared, and at the end, abruptly disappeared. This effect is often used in horror films. But if you are not going to scare your viewers, but want them to like your video, then you definitely need to insert a fade-in at the beginning of the video, and a fade-out at the end.

    In fact, this is quite simple to do.

    How to make a smooth appearance.

    First, you need to place your video on the timeline, hopefully you already know how to do this. Well, now there is one more simple operation left. Move your cursor to the top left corner. The cursor appearance will change. Then, holding down the left mouse button, move the cursor to the right. The farther you move the cursor to the right, the duration of the video will be.

    You can now change the spawn speed. You can make it linear. That is, the video will begin to appear at the same speed. You can also choose a smoother appearance. That is, at the beginning of the segment the video will appear at a low speed, and then, at the end of the segment, the video will begin to appear sharply.

    To do this, move the mouse to the place where the appearance ends, click the right mouse button. A context menu for selecting the curve type will appear.

    Smooth fading in Sony Vegas is done in exactly the same way. You just need to move the cursor to the upper right edge, and then move it to the left.

    After that, it's time to work on the sound. The same rules apply here as for video. Because the sudden appearance of sound may shock your viewers. Especially if you start with some hard rock. It is also necessary to make a smooth fade. In this case, the viewer will understand that everything is over and will calmly move on to other things. For example, it will start watching your next video.

    Now it's time to make the transitions. You can read about how to make a smooth transition in this article. And about how to make an effective transition, in this one.

    Well, in today's video clip, I included both types of transitions, made a smooth beginning and ending. Let's see what happened in the video.

    Of course, that's not all. As they say, there is no limit to perfection. There is still something to work on in the video. But more on this in the next lessons.

    We tried to answer general questions and reviewed the basic installation techniques. Now let's pay attention to the basic effects in the program, and also consider solutions to the most frequently encountered problems.

    Effects

    How to make a sound fade out at the end of a sound clip?

    There is a triangle on the upper left and right edges of the clips - you can grab it with the mouse and drag it inside the clip - you will see how the fade-in/fade-out of the sound changes (this is the so-called FadeIn/FadeOut). This applies to both audio and video clips (for the latter it will fade to black).

    The shape of the fade curve can be selected: call up the local menu here and select the desired shape in the Fade Type submenu.

    How to add a brightness profile to a video track?

    Firstly, video clips do not have a profile, but a constant Opacity value, and this, in fact, is not brightness, but transparency. But if there is only one video track, then this transparency will be on a black background, that is, this is, as it were, brightness.

    In Normal Edit mode (it turns on by default after the first launch), you need to move the cursor to the top border of the video clip. When the cursor turns into a “hand” with an up and down arrow, click the mouse button and drag down. In this case, the drop-down tooltip will contain the inscription “Opacity is ...%”.

    Secondly, to add a Fade to Color profile (this is like brightness), select the desired track, then use the menu Insert/Video Envelopes/Track Fade to Color. A profile will appear, in it exactly the same as in the sound volume profile, add points using the Add Point command of the local menu, etc.

    What additional video effects are there for Vegas?

    Perhaps the most famous are,. The range of effects in them is so large that it is better to go to the websites of the manufacturers of these sets for more detailed information. There are other sets of plugins - both paid and free.

    Is it possible to give a “cinematic” effect to a video?

    Yes, you can try the Magic Bullet Movie Looks effect (external effect, installed separately). If you need stylization “like an old movie,” then such an effect (Old Film) is available in the program itself.

    How to flip a video from left to right?

    Press the Track Motion button on the video track and use the Flip Horizontal button in the window that appears.

    If this needs to be done on only one clip, then you need to call a similar function in the Pan & Crop window (this window is called by pressing a special button on the right border of the clip on the track). In it you need to right-click and select “Flip horizontal” from the menu.

    How to create a picture-in-picture effect?

    Is it possible to make sure that the parameters of effects and transitions are not constant, but change over time according to a given scenario (profile)?

    Yes, you can. How to do this is described in.

    Is it possible to make the video play backwards or at variable speed?

    Yes, to do this you need to add a speed envelope to the video track (Insert menu --> Video Envelopes --> Event Velocity) and drag it down with the mouse so that the speed becomes -100%.

    You can also add key points on this envelope (by double-clicking) and set the playback speed at each of them (for example, you can freeze a frame by setting the speed to 0%). The duration of the clip will change accordingly.

    Is it possible to speed up video more than 4 times in Vegas?

    It is possible, but a maximum of 12 times: in the clip properties you need to set the Playback Rate to 4, and then add a Velocity Envelope and set the speed to 300%. Alternatively: speed it up, save it to an intermediate file, then open it in the project, speed it up again, etc. But this, at least, is inconvenient, and is fraught with poor quality of the result, so it is better to do significant acceleration by other means - for example, using scripts and saving to a processed file, which can then be opened in Vegas.

    Is it possible to speed up/slow down both video and audio at the same time?

    Yes, to do this, press Ctrl and drag the clip border left and right with the mouse. If you change the duration too much, severe distortion may be heard in the sound. In this way, you can speed up/slow down video and sound only by a constant amount.

    Is it possible to stabilize the video directly in the program so that it shakes and twitches less?

    Video effects have been applied to the video, but I don't see their effects in the Preview window. What's the matter?

    Check in the Preview window to see if the Split Screen View and FX Bypassed options are enabled.

    Problems

    After installing the program, I discovered that there were no video effects (similar problems: MPEG2 files or AC3 audio cannot be opened). What's the matter?

    The problem is almost certainly that a pirated version of the program is installed and the corresponding plugins are not activated. An officially purchased licensed version should not have such problems (if they still exist, reinstall the program and/or contact Sony technical support).

    In the latest versions of the program, to activate MPEG2 and AC3 plugins, you just need to install DVD Architect (licensed, of course).

    There are problems with files from the HDV camera - the program works fine with some, but crashes with others. What to do?

    If the files were entered from an HDV camera using the HDVSplit program, then most likely this is the problem. Unfortunately, from the point of view of Vegas, such files are considered not entirely correct, and Sony does not recommend using HDVSplit to input HDV video from a camera, and does not guarantee stable operation in this case. Use the built-in HDV input module, which is included directly in the program.

    The mp3 audio file cannot be opened. What to do?

    AVI file with video in DivX format cannot be opened. What to do?

    You need to install the DivX codec (from the official website). If this does not help, then try changing the FourCC code in the file to "DX50" (using the FourCC Code Changer program). Sometimes such problems occur due to conflicts with the XviD codec - try disabling DivX decoding in its settings (or removing the XviD codec altogether). Problems can also be caused by installed codecpacks (K-Lite, etc.) - it is better to remove them all and install codecs only separately as needed.

    When you try to open a file, the message “Stream attributes could not be determined” is displayed at the bottom of the window, and the file cannot be opened. Why?

    There are several options: either the file format is not supported (a list of supported formats is available from the manufacturer), or the corresponding plugins are not activated (see above), or the appropriate codecs for video and/or sound are not installed. More details about this are written in.

    DebugMode FrameServer is not available in version 8. How to solve the problem?

    Take advice from the forum:

    DV I/O

    I once used Vegas 2.0, and when outputting the finished video back to the DV camera, the date and time of shooting were saved (except for transitions, --:-- was shown there). Now there is a newer version, and the rendering date/time is indicated. How to ensure that the date and time of the original shooting are recorded?

    No way - in newer versions of the program this feature no longer exists.

    When capturing anal video using a pass-through channel (the camera digitizes and immediately transmits via the IEEE1394 interface to the PC), Adobe Premiere works without problems, but Vegas requires you to insert a cassette into the camera. Is it possible to wean Vegas from requiring a cassette during end-to-end digitization through the camera?

    Try disabling camera control via DV, that is, DV Device Control: in the Video Capture window, call up the Options/Preferences menu, General tab, there is the Enable DV Device Control option - turn it off.

    What are the ways to output to DV tape in Vegas?

    There are two ways - display the project directly (or part of it) or a list of files. The first is done using the Tools/Print Video to DV Tape menu command, the second - the File/Capture Video menu, Print To Tape tab. The first method requires preliminary calculation of all transitions between clips, as well as all video processed with effects or brightness profiles, as well as all audio (into an intermediate file in W64 format).

    The second method allows you to quickly display a list of several ready-made DV clips on tape without intermediate recalculations and without creating a project. If the clips were not entered into Vegas, they must be exactly in DV format (see the dvsd format identifier in the next question).

    How to avoid a complete recalculation of the entire project before outputting to DV tape?

    First, make sure that the parameters of all DV files in the project exactly match the parameters of the project, and correspond to the DV format.

    Call the File/Properties menu, or press Alt+Enter. In the Video tab, for reliability, it’s easier to select the desired format in the Template list, for example PAL DV. In this case, the Field order must be Lower field first. In the Audio tab, make sure that the sound parameters are as follows: Sample rate = 48000 (the default is usually 44100!), Bit depth = 16.

    Also, make sure that all source files in the Project Media window have the same settings, especially the field order!

    The most important thing: if the files were entered from the tape not using Vegas Video, or were pre-processed in another program, be sure to make sure (using some text file viewer, for example, the built-in viewer in FAR manager or Windows Commander) that the code The format inside the file is indicated as “dvsd”, and not any other (for example, the Canopus DV Raptor board writes the format identifier “CDVC” and works with its own codec), and in small, not capital letters! Otherwise, Vegas will not recognize them as standard DV files, despite the fact that the file was opened with some DV codec, and will completely recalculate the entire project before saving to tape.

    To change the format identifier (also called FourCC code) without rewriting the entire file, there are various programs, for example AVI Fourcc Changer. We remind you once again that the dvsd code must be written in small letters, not in capital letters!

    In addition, audio is always saved to an intermediate file in W64 format before output to tape, and this cannot be avoided when outputting a project to tape. If you want to output a single file to tape as quickly as possible, it is better to use the Print to tape tab from the File/Capture video menu.

    Why doesn't DV Device Control work when outputting to my digital tape recorder, meaning I have to start recording manually?

    Apparently Vegas does not support your tape recorder's DV Device Control. Helpful Links

    Is there Russian documentation for the program, any lessons in Russian?

    Yes, there are quite a lot of such resources on the Internet. Some of them (perhaps the most useful):

  • Russian-language forums for Sony Vegas:

    • I have already talked about the advantage of the Sony Vegas editor in working with sound. Everything is described in more detail in this publication, so I will not repeat it.

    As stated at the beginning of the article, Vegas was originally developed as a powerful multi-track audio editor. The possibilities for audio processing are very wide - the program allows you to:

    • create projects with both stereo sound and surround sound in 5.1 format. Starting from version 8 Pro, the program supports sound in Dolby Digital (AC3) 5.1 format and at the input;
    • record sound from the input of a sound card (recording simultaneously from several sound cards, including multi-channel ones is supported);
    • place an unlimited number of audio clips on audio tracks, with different compression and formats (number of channels and sampling frequency) simultaneously in one project, without the need for preliminary audio decompression (it is carried out “on the fly”, during playback or output of the editing result to the final file) ;
    • in the same way as for video clips, set FadeIn/FadeOut for audio clips, with the ability to select one of five forms of the fade profile (when clips are superimposed on each other, you get 25 options for the transition of one clip to another by changing the volume of both);
    • turn on and off (Mute, mute) audio tracks.
    • set the volume and stereo panorama (for projects with 5.1 sound - the position of the sound in space) for each track;
    • assign profiles (or envelopes, Envelopes) to audio tracks for changes in volume/panorama over time with nodal points (for projects with 5.1 sound - a profile of the sound position in space);
    • assign effect chains to audio tracks for real-time audio processing. The kit includes several dozen effects: various filters, equalizers, dynamic range compressors, echo, etc. Any third-party DirectX and VST plug-ins for audio processing are also supported;
    • for some effects, it allows you to assign profiles (envelopes) of changes in their parameters over time to audio tracks;
    • combine audio tracks into groups (the so-called Bus, or buses) in order to simultaneously control their volume, or assign the same set of effects to them;
    • output sound to a variety of formats (including mp3, AC3, and in the case of WAV and AVI formats - to any format for which the ACM audio codec is installed in the system).

    In this article it is impossible to consider in detail all the sound capabilities of the program, so we will focus only on some that are often used when editing home videos.

    For example, you need to perform a simple action - replace part of the audio in a video. To do this, click on the desired video clip with audio and ungroup it (press U) so that the audio and video are edited separately. Let's say you need to replace the beginning of a sound with another one - from a sound file. First, drag the left edge of the original audio clip to the right to make room for the audio you're adding. Then, in the Explorer section, find the desired audio file (for example, in mp3 format) and drag it onto the timeline, onto a separate audio track. Adjust the end of the added audio clip so that it has the desired duration. Then drag it onto the same audio track as the original footage audio. You can make it partially overlap the sound of the video sequence - in this case, the sound will smoothly transition from one clip to another:

    If you press the right mouse button above the place where sounds are overlapped (the so-called Crossfade), then in the submenu Fade Type You can choose the shape of the volume envelopes for each of the two audio clips - a total of 25 options are available (the same as those available for Crossfade video clips). So that in the future the video clip and both sounds move together, or are not accidentally ungrouped, they can be combined into a group - select them by clicking them with the mouse while holding down the Ctrl key and pressing G.

    I often want add music to video sequence. Even a rather boring and monotonous video can look different if you add music to it. This is done very simply: find the desired audio file (for example, in mp3 format) in the Explorer section and drag it with the mouse onto the timeline just below the audio track of the video sequence. An audio track will be automatically created and the audio clip will be placed on it. If necessary, move the audio clip to the desired place, “cut” its beginning/end, add FadeIn/FadeOut - all this is done in the same way as it is done with video clips (see the section “Editing Basics”). Naturally, you can add any number of sound clips to your project this way.

    But simply throwing music into a project is only half the battle. It is important to choose the right volume so that it does not sound intrusive and does not interfere with the viewing of your video.

    Be sure to try to see the result of the editing yourself by listening to the sound, both in headphones and in speakers, at different volumes. If you want the music to only be an additional background and not replace the original sound, then it is important to select the volume of the music so that even at low speaker volumes the original sound sounds clearly (in particular, the words in the voices of people in the frame should be clearly and legibly perceived ). Most likely, the volume of each musical composition will have to be selected separately. To do this, move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the audio clip (the cursor will change to a hand with a finger and up and down arrows) and drag it down with the left mouse button pressed. In this case, the volume (Gain, gain) will decrease. Reducing the volume by 6 dB (decibels) means reducing the amplitude of the sound by half. Listen to at least a few seconds of the original audio along with the music and make sure that the music is not too loud, and if it is not, turn down the volume. Do this with each music video, listening to different parts of the edit.

    It may turn out that in some areas you only need to temporarily “mute” the volume of the music so that at that moment only sounds in the frame (for example, people’s voices) are heard, or, conversely, to add drama or dynamism to the plot, the music needs to be turned up louder a few seconds. To do this you need to add volume profile to a soundtrack with music.

    To do this, select the desired audio track (click on its title on the left) and call the menu command Insert/Audio Envelopes/Volume. A horizontal line will appear on the track - this is the profile, or the envelope of the volume change. In the place where you need to reduce the sound volume, right-click above the profile and call the Add Point menu command, and add another one a little to the right. Then move to the place where the volume should return to its original value and add two profile points there too. As a result, a horizontal section is formed between the two middle points, which can be “dragged” up and down with the mouse to increase/decrease the sound volume in this section. The figure shows how to attenuate the sound by 12 dB (four times the amplitude) over a 10-second segment:

    If you need to completely muffle the sound, the corresponding section of the profile should be pulled down “all the way” so that the volume takes on the value -Inf (minus infinity, which in decibels corresponds to the amplitude multiplied by zero).
    If you need the volume to smoothly change from one value to another, add volume profile points in the right places and set the desired gain values ​​in them - either by dragging the points up/down with the mouse, or by calling the Set To... command in the menu with the right mouse button above the point. To set the initial sound volume at any point (disable volume changes), select the Set to 0.0 dB command.

    Between points, the default volume profile is linear. In the menu above the profile section, you can select the shape of the profile change curve -Linear,Fast,Slow,smooth,Sharp. TypeHold means that until the next point the profile value will be constant.

    The volume of each audio track can be changed entirely - for this, use the Vol slider on the track header (if the slider is not visible, stretch the header across the width):

    It happens that music added to a project sounds too quiet when the volume is reduced, and too intrusive when increased, with loud bass and annoying high frequencies, and it is difficult to find the “golden mean”. You can correct the situation using a sound equalizer. On the title of the audio track with music, click the Track FX... button, a window for assigning sound effects (processing) to the track will appear. Among them, Track EQ is immediately present by default - click on the effect name at the top to activate its window.

    An equalizer allows you to change the sound volume as desired in certain frequency ranges, or bands. By default, the equalizer does not change anything (all gain parameters are set to 0 dB). Let's start with the lower frequencies (bass). Click on tab 1 (Low Shelf filter type). Drag the Gain slider to the left to tone down the low frequencies. Drag the Frequency slider to the right to increase the filter's cutoff frequency. The higher the frequency, the more low frequencies will be suppressed. You can start playback in the main window and listen to what you get, while simultaneously selecting the frequency and degree of suppression on the fly.

    Now you need to muffle the high frequencies (the upper sounds of percussion instruments, various noise effects, ringing, etc. are usually heard there). Click on tab 4 (High Shelf filter type). Similarly, select the degree of suppression (Gain) and cutoff frequency (Frequency). The lower the frequency, the more high frequencies will be suppressed.

    As a result, we have the following picture: the low and high frequencies of the music are muffled, and the music now sounds less intrusive, without interfering with the perception of the main sound in the video.

    Low frequency reduction can also be used to reduce the audibility of wind noise (more on this in the FAQ).

    It happens that voices in the frame sound unintelligible. This can also be corrected using an equalizer - just increase the volume in the mid-frequency region (about 2-3 kHz for a male voice and 4-5 kHz for a female voice). To do this, open the equalizer window on the audio track with audio from the video sequence. Select tab 3 (Band filter type) and increase the gain (Gain), and also change the center frequency of the band (Frequency).

    Play the project and try to adjust the gain and center frequency of the band on the fly so that your voice sounds more clearly. You can also increase the bandwidth (Bandwidth, in octaves). It is not recommended to increase the volume of mid frequencies too much (more than 6 dB), otherwise the voice may sound like it’s coming from a telephone. You can read more about this in the FAQ.

    If the equalizer in a project does not need to process the entire sound, but only its parts (for example, where there are people talking in the frame), then all the areas that need to be processed should be left on the audio track to which the equalizer is assigned, and the remaining audio clips should be transferred to a separate track on which no audio processing effects are assigned.

    In addition to the equalizer, a Track Compressor effect is automatically assigned to audio tracks, designed to reduce the dynamic range of the audio track. It can be used to reduce the difference between loud and quiet sounds - for example, in scenes where, along with quietly speaking people, there are sometimes loud bangs, door slams, etc. in the frame. You can read more about how this can be done in the FAQ.

    You can also assign processing to an entire project using the Master FX... button in the Mixer window. When you call the add effects command, a window appears with a list of effects divided into categories. Select the desired effect, click the Add and OK buttons.

    By analogy with the animation of video effect parameters (see the corresponding section above), you can set animation of sound effects parameters. For example, you can define a profile for how the frequency of an equalizer filter changes over time. On the header of the audio track to which we have assigned an equalizer to increase the clarity of the voice, click the down arrow button on the right side of the Track FX button... In the drop-down menu, select the FX Automation command, in the window that appears, select the Track EQ effect. The list shows the names of processing parameters that can be made time-varying during playback. Check the Band 3 Frequency checkbox and click OK. A new profile will appear on the audio track, which can be controlled in the same way as the volume profile: add points, move them, set frequency values ​​​​at each point by entering a value, etc.

    By controlling the processing parameters during playback, you can get a wide variety of sound effects - for example, using the Delay effect you can get an echo with a variable “reflection” time of the sound.

    4. Output the result to a file

    Saving the editing result to the output video file (not to be confused with saving the editing project) is carried out using the menu command File/Render As... In the “File type” list, select the desired container format (for example, Video for Windows for an avi file), in the Template list ( template) select the compression format. Click the Custom button to view and/or set video and audio compression parameters (in the Project tab, do not forget to select Best in the Video rendering quality list). If necessary, enable/disable the Include Video/Include Audio flags to include/exclude video and audio in the output file. In the Video format drop-down list (Video tab), select the format (codec) for video compression; in the Audio format list (Audio tab), select the format (codec) for audio compression.

    In order for a custom audio codec (format) to be available, you must select a video format other thanD.V.

    If the project uses interlaced video (and in most cases this is the case for video from a video camera), then it is important that the correct field order is set in all source files (in the file properties in the Project Media window), and it is better to have the same order fields are set in the project properties, and in the output video settings to minimize image transformations. If you want to save raw sections of video without recompression, this requirement becomes mandatory (in this case, the frame size/frequency must also match, and for MPEG2, the compression parameters, in particular, the bitrate).

    For MPEG files (in MPEG2, HDV, AVCHD formats), the order of the fields is specified directly in the source files, so the program determines the order of the fields automatically (of course, if the specified order coincides with the actual one - exceptions are rare, but they happen when the file is incorrectly recoded; if the video is taken from a camera or capture board, then the order of the fields in the file is correct).

    In the case of AVI files, it is generally impossible to automatically determine the field order, but, for example, for interlaced video from DV video cameras, the correct field order is Lower Field First. For video captured by most TV tuners, the field order is usually reversed - Upper Field First. If the actual order of the fields is unknown, or you are not sure, then you can determine it using the method described in the FAQ.

    If you want to save video in MPEG2 format for DVD, then MainConcept MPEG plug-in for Vegas must be installed and registered. In the latest versions of Vegas, you need to install the Sony DVD Architect program to do this. In this case, you need to select MainConcept MPEG2 in the list of file types, and the desired template (for example, DVD PAL) in the list of templates. If necessary, you need to adjust the video and/or audio bitrate, depending on how much video you need to put on the DVD. For one-hour material, single-pass encoding at 8 Mbps for video is usually sufficient (more on this in the FAQ).

    If Sony DVD Architect is used as a DVD authoring program, then the marks placed in the project (inserted by pressing Ctrl+M at the current position) can be used to indicate the beginning of chapters in the created DVD. When saving a file in MPEG2 format, enable the “Save project markers in media file” option in the file save dialog, and DVD Architect will automatically use the project markers as the beginning marks of the DVD chapters (more precisely, the disc section that will be obtained from this MPEG2 file) .

    Be prepared for the fact that saving the resulting file can take quite a long time (up to several tens of hours depending on the duration of the project, video resolution, compression format and computer power). If a significant part of the project is saved without recompression, then it is better to keep the source files on one hard drive, and save the result on another, physically separate hard drive, in order to significantly speed up the data copying operation.

    5. Encoding using a frameserver

    Sometimes there are situations when you need to compress the editing result using an external encoder program. This can be done by first saving the result into an AVI file without compression, or using a codec that allows you to save data without loss. In both cases, a lot of disk space will be required: for example, in the case of an hour-long project, saving it in an uncompressed format will require tens of gigabytes, and saving will take a very long time. If the result is needed only to transfer it to another program for encoding, then it is possible to avoid saving such a large intermediate file. To do this, there is a small free frameserver program DebugMode FrameServer, which can be downloaded from its official website http://www.debugmode.com.

    After installing the frameserver, launch Vegas, open the desired project and call the File/Render As menu. From the list of file types, select DebugMode FrameServer.

    If this type of format is not in the list, try using the advice from the forum.

    When you click Save, specify a folder on the disk to save the intermediate file. After this, the frameserver settings window will appear:

    The parameters can be left as default, as shown in the figure. At the click of a button Next An intermediate AVI file (this will take some time) of small size will be created in the specified folder. It can be opened in any encoder program (Canopus ProCoder, TMPGEnc, etc.), and as soon as encoding is started, the encoding data will be transferred to the encoder directly from Vegas in uncompressed form, that is, without loss. This method of data transfer is called frameserving, when frames are transferred upon request directly from the editing program to the encoder through memory, bypassing recording into a large intermediate file. Among other conveniences, this method allows for multi-pass encoding using encoders that support this.

    Attention: do not try to open the same intermediate AVI file in several copies of encoding programs at once - the encoding result will be unpredictable. The described frameserver does not have correct support for this mode, and is designed for sequential coding of a project (although multi-pass coding is also allowed) with only one external process.

    Once encoding is complete, close the external encoder program and click StopServing in the Debugmode FrameServer window.

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